Ride along with Mark as he discusses the concept of breakup fees. Breaking up a healthcare deal of any kind might be tough, but breakup fees can be used to compensate for a blown deal, and even prevent a breakup in the first place.

Several years ago, I read a review in a magazine for consultants of a new book by an "expert" who advises that since business now moves at the speed of light, the "old" strategic question of "where do you want to be X years from now?" must now be "where do you want to be in a few days from now?" That's B.S.!

Some hospital attorneys and, therefore, some hospital administrators, believe that every contract for professional services should be subjects to a request for proposal (RFP) process. That's ridicules.

Ride along with Mark as he discusses a little-known reason to have a strongly worded confidentiality provision in any contract between a hospital and a medical group. This is important for hospital-based physician groups with exclusive contracts, as well as for the office-based practices with the hospital contracts.

Creative destruction is taking aim directly at community hospitals. You can fight to save them, But if they've failed, you can, á la Shumpeter (and Weiss), take part in creating, phoenix-like, far more appropriate healthcare solutions for your community and for your profit.

Ride along with Mark as he discuses the parallels between the Industrial Revolution, the bespoke customization of bike farms, and modern medical practice: more patients and a transformational experience.

LIFO and FIFO are inventory concepts. But they apply to the quandary of which physicians would be let go if case volume drops precipitously. This is a pressing issue for hospital-based groups as hospitals shrink and close. The time to plan is well ahead of the time, if ever, to implement.

The survey, conducted annually by the data technology firm Geneia, found that 87% of surveyed physicians say that it's increasingly harder to spend time in an honest, engaged patient encounter, and that they're personally at risk of burnout.

Ride along with Mark as he discusses why your medical group needs an underlying purpose. Like life without an underlying philosophy, business without a purpose is simply giving in to the default position.

On the one hand, it's said that many physicians don't want other physicians to "profit" off to their work. Yet, at the same time, the great majority of physicians leaving training see a career in which they will never become practice owners. Ride along with Mark as he discusses how you, as a physician group owner, can add years to your career and significant profit to your bottom line.

Take a seat while Mark discusses a hospital's announcement that it's closing down its physician joint venture ASC. Was it really their decision? Or have the physician partners realized that they no longer need the hospital?

Suppose people who want to sell us driverless cars, or to force us into driverless cars, are right and that we'll all be driving in them. What's the impact on healthcare? What's the impact on your practice?

We hear about people being de-platformed by social media sites. But are you ready for when your medical practice or medical group is de-platformed in a far more destructive way? Ride along with Mark to hear the rest of the story.

Ride along with Mark as he fills you in on how a simple
2-cent card created loyalty that will drive many thousands of dollars in future
business. Learn how the same psychology of small, personal touches can drive
thousands to millions of dollars in business to you.

On Thursday, June 28th, the DOJ and HHS announced the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action. It resulted in charges against 601 defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings.

The flashpoint is the defendants’ development of a competing ASC, Riverview Surgical Center. That’s the straightforward news. But, what’s really going on? And why should you, probably not a surgeon in Sioux City, care? Keep listening. It will become clear, really clear.

Cyber criminals pay far more for health data than for credit card or banking information. Don't inadvertently help them out while exposing yourself to, potentially, tens of thousands of HIPAA violations.

For years, hospitals have pushed to “align” physicians. Take a ride with Mark as he talks about a reversal in the trend: As what were hospital cases now flow out to independent ASCs, hospitals are begging to be aligned with physicians. But why allow a hospital to be a partner in your ASC deal?

Ride along with Mark as he discusses the recent indictment of a slew of doctors and pharmacists for pushing millions of oxycodone pills. But what’s great law enforcement has a chilling impact on the legitimate practice of pain medicine.

What are you incentivizing your employees or independent contractors to do? And what if those incentives are driving them to not do other things that are far more essential for your business? What if those incentives are driving them to do things that are clearly detrimental to your business?

Ride along with Mark while he shares his thoughts on why huge hospital mergers, like the one just announced by Baylor Scott & White and the Memorial Hermann Health System, aren't good for anyone other than the executives who run them.

"Direct" is more of a mindset - it's the dematerialization of the payment intermediaries in connection with your design of a payment/delivery structure. Direct contracting can be used as a strategy to deflect the negotiating pressure of payors, especially down-stream middlemen such as IPAs and risk bearing medical groups.

Ride along while Mark discusses bloated hospital administrative bureaucracy and warns against adopting similar structures at physician-owned surgery centers, imaging facilities and other outpatient ventures.

When physicians think about allegations of kickbacks in the context of large insurers, it's generally related to how a carrier's internal "claims cops" have alleged that some physician or other provider engaged in a kickback scheme, obviating the payor's need to pay claims, or, even worse, supporting their demand for repayment.

Ride along with Mark as he counsels you on telling yourself the truth about your current practice situation and finances, and suggests ways to break out of being a sacrificial animal for someone else's benefit.

Ride along with Mark as he counsels you on telling yourself the truth about your current practice situation and finances, and suggest ways to break out of being a sacrificial animal for someone else's benefit.